Zoo Collections

From early in my collecting I liked the LL cards. They nearly always came in pairs, one taken a few seconds after the first so a pedestrian would have walked a few yards, or a bus would have moved further down the road. This is even more fascinating with photographs of animals when an elephant has swayed his trunk or a lion flicked his tail. So I started to collect all the LL cards of London Zoo beginning with the entrance and also including those which have French titles. Usually there are two varieties of cards in black and white, coloured, or sepia. The sepia can be found both matt and glossy.

So let's go in with no.663 - Entrance to the Zoological Gardens.

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Only once have I found three different photographs of one group of animals - the penguins. At first glance you may not notice, but look carefully at the penguin on the right. They are numbered 752, the first is coloured and the others are black and white.

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The next two are no.749, a lovely tiger. The coloured one is titled Indian Tiger (Presented by H.R.H. The Prince of Wales), and I also have it with the same title changed to H.M. The King. The black and white one here is just titled Indian Tiger, but I also have it with the title referring to the Prince of Wales.

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The next two are no.725 and the lion on the right is one of the few sepia glossy I have. The first is coloured.

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I visited the zoo when I was a child and rides were 1d each, except the elephant ride which was 2d and seemed very expensive to me! The next two are 735, The Camel Ride, black and white and sepia; The Elephant Ride is 731, coloured and black and white.

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Because I like the LL cards so much I started to look for cards with animals from any countries, zoos or otherwise. The following three are from France and Egypt. The first is no.123, Chien des Pyrénées, the second is no.132, a donkey from Egypt, and the third is no.13, a donkey from France wearing the typical gingham leg covers used in the area of the Ile de Ré.

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I also collect postcards of London Zoo painted in watercolours by the artist C.T.Howard. Here are just three of them.

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Another Zoo's cards I collect is our local one - Marwell Zoo, near Winchester. This zoo specialises in keeping endangered species. Their cards come in the "modern" category as the place is not very old, although you can sometimes come across early cards of Marwell Hall in a dealer's stock. I have a special interest in the tamarins as I have adopted one. The first two cards show Marwell Hall as it was early in the 20th century, and the second one as it is today - not changed much at all!

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And here are some of the animals:-

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All the modern postcards can be purchased from Marwell Zoo, except the one of Princess Anne when the photograph was taken by Mike Englefield of the Basingstoke Gazette and published by Pat Holton - PH Topics. HRH The Princess Royal was visiting the Zoo for the official opening of The World of Lemurs on 23rd April 1992. She has opened several new ventures in Marwell Zoo.

If you would like to visit London Zoo or Marwell Zoo's own sites, please click on the following links. Marwell has a good selection of e-cards and an attractive screensaver too.

Londonzoo Marwellzoo
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